Consultancy for EUDR database system development

Terms of Reference

Stichting IDH

EUDR database system development

1. Introduction

Stichting IDH (IDH – The Sustainable Trade Initiative), through its Sustainable Landscape Program in Vietnam, is working with government and private sector actors to transform the country’s coffee sector toward deforestation-free, low-emission, and inclusive sourcing systems. To support the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), IDH has prioritized the development of a scalable Production Database System for coffee and other plants used as information flatform for traceability in the Central Highlands.

This Terms of Reference (ToR) outlines the objectives, scope, deliverables, and technical requirements for the assignment of a service provider to design and deploy a digital system that captures farm-level data and integrates mapping, production, and geolocation tools in line with EUDR compliance requirements.

2. Background

Vietnam is the world’s second-largest coffee producer, with 600,000 smallholder farmers cultivating more than 700,000 hectares nationwide. The Central Highlands region alone accounts for 85% of the country’s coffee-growing area. However, smallholders face critical challenges in meeting new international market requirements, particularly the EUDR, which mandates geolocation data and deforestation-free sourcing for all coffee imports into the EU.

To meet these demands, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), IDH, VICOFA, JDE Peet’s, and Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) in five Central Highlands provinces signed a Memorandum of Understanding in June 2023 to launch the Vietnam EUDR Adaptation Action Plan. One of its core interventions is the establishment of the EUDR Database System.

This system is expected to integrate three core information platforms:

Coffee Farm Database System for coffee and main inter-crop plants in farms
EUDR Forest System
EUDR Traceability System

The expansion of the “EUDR Database System” has been proposed, building on lessons learned from the development and implementation of related data systems during the pilot phase. The pilot, conducted by IDH in four Central Highlands districts during 2023–2024, highlighted significant challenges in data accessibility, cadastral consistency, and system interoperability. Based on these insights, the pilot database infrastructure and toolkits—validated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)—are considered technically sound and ready for scaling to other provinces.

3. Assignment structure and team responsibilities

Objectives

To design, build, and operationalize a EUDR Database System to support traceability, compliance with the EUDR, and integration with forest and supply chain monitoring systems.

Scope and phase of work

The assignment will cover the following tasks:

Review existing pilot systems and relevant MARD technical guidelines.
Design system structure base on the demo and requirements of IDH, especially including GIS integration and relational data structures.
Develop digital forms to capture farm, crop, production, and mapping data.
Integrate land plots and cadastral data at the commune and district levels.
Administrate the central system on a server jointly managed by IDH and the Department of Crop Production & Plant Protection.
Hand over full system, including source code, documentation, and full administrative rights to IDH.

Deliverables and timeline

Deliverables:

Design of “EUDR Database System”:
- Includes and links 3 system components including: Coffee Farm Database; EUDR Forest Database; EUDR Traceability System
- Management, operation and access authorization tools, information exploitation.
- Survey tools, new information updates and background information updates tools.
- Source code (key) to deploy the system for each system owners (National and Provincial levels)

System establishment:
- The approved system design will be set up on the server managed by IDH (later handed over to the Department of Plant Production and Protection)
- Guideline for set up the system on the server of the Departments of Agriculture and Environment in 5 provinces of the Central Highlands.

Instructional documents and training:
- Documents on management, authorization and use of the system are fully developed.
- Training documents & training sessions organized for IDH staffs and partners, ensuring fluent use of the system, especially for using survey tools of the system.

Timeline:

The assignment is expected to last 7 months, from May 2025 to 31 December 2025, with an average of 22 working days per month.

Phase	Description	Timeline
Phase 1	System Design and Installation	May – June 2025
Phase 2	Development and Testing	June 2025
Phase 3	Deployment and Training	August 2025
Phase 4	Technical Support and Finalization	May – December 2025

4. Proposal requirements

Proposals must include:

Company/Consultancy capacity
Technical approach
CVs for each consultant, with indicated technical responsibilities;
Sample of previous similar work and two client references;
Proposed Budget
Compliance with IDH safeguarding policies.

5. Evaluation and award

Criteria:

Technical quality: 75%
Price competitiveness: 25%

Technical proposals will be evaluated on methodology, relevance, feasibility, and team experience.

Once IDH has decided to which Service provider it intends to award the assignment, a written notification thereof is sent to all Service providers participating in the tender procedure.

The Service provider is contracted via a letter of assignment (LoA), following IDH’s template.

6. Communication and Confidentiality

The proposal must be submitted to Ms. Mac Tuyet Nga, Program Manager at [email protected] and Mr. Mai Van Tai, Programme officer at [email protected] before 23 May 2025.

The Service provider is thus explicitly prohibited, to prevent discrimination of the other Service providers and to ensure the diligence of the procedure, to have any contact whatsoever regarding the tender with any other persons of IDH than the person stated in the first sentence of this paragraph.

The documents provided by or on behalf of IDH will be handled confidentiality. The Service provider will also impose a duty of confidentiality on any parties that it engages. Any breach of the duty of confidentiality by the Service provider or its engaged third parties will give IDH grounds for exclusion of the Service provider, without requiring any prior written or verbal warning.

All information, documents and other requested or provided data submitted by the Service providers will be handled with due care and confidentiality by IDH. The provided information will after evaluation by IDH be filed as confidential. The provided information will not be returned to the Service provider.

7. Disclaimer

IDH reserves the right to update, change, extend, postpone, withdraw, or suspend the ToR, this tender procedure, or any decision regarding the selection or contract award. IDH is not obliged in this tender procedure to make a contract award decision or to conclude a contract with a participant.

Participants in the tender procedure cannot claim compensation from IDH, any affiliated persons or entities, in any way, in case any of the afore-mentioned situations occur.

By handing in a proposal, participants accept all terms and reservations made in this ToR, and subsequent information and documentation in this tender procedure.